Betfair Not Liable for £1.5M Lost by Problem Gambler, UK Court Rules
A UK High Court judge has ruled that Flutter Entertainment's Betfair is not responsible for repaying £1.48 million ($1.7 million) lost by property developer Lee Gibson, determining the betting exchange had no duty of care to prevent his losses.
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Gibson sued Betfair in September 2021, seeking damages for losses incurred between 2009-2019, primarily from soccer betting. He claimed the operator should have recognized his gambling risks by 2012.
Judge Nigel Bird noted in his 11-page ruling that Gibson never disclosed any gambling problems to Betfair. Instead, he repeatedly assured staff he could afford his losses and claimed to be a multimillionaire. The judge found no concerning patterns in Gibson's financial information, stating his losses appeared sustainable despite their size.
The case differed significantly from the 2008 Calvert Vs. William Hill precedent, where the bookmaker failed its duty of care after breaching a self-exclusion agreement. Gibson never requested self-exclusion from Betfair, making it harder to establish a duty of care.
The ruling emphasized that British law generally doesn't require preventing self-inflicted harm. Judge Bird stated that since gambling is legal in the UK, Parliament couldn't have intended gambling contracts to be void, adding that while winners should keep their gains, losers must accept their losses.
This landmark decision clarifies the extent of gambling operators' responsibilities to their customers in the UK, particularly regarding high-value players who haven't self-identified as problem gamblers.